The World Wide Web allows for the access of information on the Internet by permitting a user to navigate Internet resources without Internet Protocol (IP) addresses or other technical knowledge. The Web does away with command-line utilities, which typically require a user to transmit sets of commands to communicate with an Internet server. Instead, the Web is made up of thousands of interconnected web sites.
In order to access a given web site, a user utilizes a uniform resource locator (URL) or domain name associated with the site. Because there are so many web sites in existence today, and because the number of web sites is always increasing, a given domain name must first be registered with a domain name registration service.
A domain name registration service is responsible for accepting a request for a domain name from an individual or a corporation and determining whether or not the domain name is already in use by somebody else. If the domain name is already taken, then the requester must choose a different domain name. If the domain name is available, then the requester is allowed to exclusively use the name and have it registered and stored in a database that maintains all of the domain names currently registered with that domain name registration service.
Domain name registration services are a great convenience in that they allow individuals and corporations to exclusively use domain names without having to create the actual web site behind the domain name or to have any web presence at all. On the other hand, this does not make it easy for many of those who already have an existing web site to associate a new domain name with the web site. Most individuals and corporations in this group have web sites that are hosted by their Internet Service Provider (ISP) and are provided free of charge. These ISPs do not usually maintain domain name service (DNS) records for their customers and do not want to maintain virtual hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) servers because the web sites they are providing are free and doing so would be costly and cumbersome. So, any time such an individual or corporation wants a new domain name associated with a web site, a new web site needs to be created.
Furthermore, the web sites that are hosted by ISPs or free hosting companies often have domain names or URLs that are lengthy and difficult to remember. An individual or corporation that has a web site with a difficult to remember domain name would likely want an easily remembered name associated with that site so that more users will visit the site. Even if the present domain name is not difficult to remember, an individual or corporation might want to try to find a way to get more users to visit a web site without going through the trouble of actually setting up a new site. For example, some domain names attract the interest of users more easily than others, although all of the names may be equally difficult or easy to remember. Accordingly, there is presently a need for a system and method for forwarding an individual's or corporation's newly registered or previously registered domain names to an existing web site of that individual or corporation.